In 1937-1938, there was a race to establish a new Chinatown because the old one was being bulldozed to make room for Union Station. So while Christine Sterling, the white Oakland transplant who had revitalized Olvera Street, was concocting her short-lived tourist trap “China City” just north of Olvera, DWP civil engineer Peter F. SooHoo (1899-1945), who was born in the old Chinatown, oversaw the building of present-day Chinatown. Inspired by the narrow laneways of Chinese cities, SooHoo – who clearly favored the Nationalists over the Communists – laid out the following walk streets around Central Plaza: Jung Jing Road, which takes the real first name (a.k.a. Chung-cheng) of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek; Mei Ling Way, for “Madame Chiang” Soong Mei-ling; Sun Mun Way, for Chiang’s predecessor Sun Yat-sen; Gin Ling Way, supposedly after Beijing’s Jinbao Jie (Golden Treasure Street); Chung King Road/Court, for the city of Chongqing; and Lei Min Way, apparently a Cantonese phoneticization of “Lapham”, referring to SooHoo’s building partner Herbert Lapham (1880-1967).
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